Intermezzo in Udine and Treviso

Udine

As the week continued, we headed west en route to the mountains. We took a quick dip into Udine, enjoying a last-minute lunch at an enoteca with an excellent wine selection (albeit an overbearing cat, who we thought was going to snatch food off our plates). We wandered through the cobblestone streets and along the canal and visited several churches before grabbing a pre-treno espresso.

Our lodging for that evening was at an inn in Treviso that looked as though it might be a drop-off point for Laura Ashley remainders—this is what you get for last-minute booking. Trofie Wife didn’t find Treviso particularly inviting, but Martello enjoyed it (he was particularly interested in the historic significance of the below fountain).

Fontana delle Tette (yup, that means what you think it does). She would bring forth wine for three days after a new governor was sworn in. Trofie Wife does not believe that Former Gov. Cuomo looked into resurrecting this practice in New York, but perhaps his son will some day. 

Treviso is known to be a wealthy town, and the streets are certainly studded with many flashy stores. It’s Benetton’s hub, so Trofie Wife was somewhat excited to visit the flagship, yet disappointed that the summer collection was no longer in sight/on ridiculous sale (and it was way too hot to try on fall sweaters; better to stick to the local shop on Via XX Settembre in Genova). We toured the large Baroque duomo and the older San Francesco church, which had a ceiling resembling a ship’s hull (pretty cool). We also got a quick glimpse at the market. Treviso is home to trevisana, which American readers probably know as radicchio. It was particularly purple here.

With afternoon upon us, we began our much-anticipated trek into the Dolomite Mountains. Now you know that much of this trip was planned on the fly, but the story of how we found the resort we were headed to should be one of marketing legend. We were in the pencil-shaped T Hotel in Cagliari—you know in Sardinia, on an island in the sea many, many kilometers from the mountains. And after dinner we decided to look through the brochures—almost all of them to local sites. But what did we find hidden in there but a brochure for the Hotel Boite in Calalzo! Turns out that the developers’ next project was in the Dolomite Mountains of all places! We booked our stay while in Trieste and hoped for the best…

Baci e gelato,

Martello e Trofie